Portable handheld devices, such as cellular telephones, media players, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), have become ubiquitous in today's society. Many of these devices offer a combination of communication, organization, and entertainment features in a single device. With the large number of features available on these devices, it is difficult to provide a desirable ergonomic design and an easy-to-use, yet powerful user interface. Many of these devices are plagued with thick battery packs, others suffer from small keypads, and still others have low resolution displays better suited for text rather than for graphics and video.
Devices do exist, however, that include large high-resolution displays that may span substantially the entire face of the device with digital keypads used in lieu of or in combination with a hard keypad. Other devices exist that feature extendible/retractable keypads that are typically larger than the keypads used on the face of many devices. This design, although a welcome improvement for those users needing or wanting a larger keypad, creates a substantially thicker device and reduced ease of portability.
Device holsters exist to make handling of a device more comfortable and practical. Device holsters typically offer protective features to prevent damage from ordinary use. Others offer further protection to prevent damage in the event the device is dropped on a hard surface. Still others offer water resistance or water proofing to reduce or prevent seepage of water or other fluids into the device components. Device holsters may also offer a belt clip or other attachment mechanism to secure the device to the user's garment or accessory, such as a belt or purse. Other holsters are adapted to secure the device to the interior of an automobile, for example, during hands-free communication via a BLUETOOTH® headset, earpiece, or vehicle system; or, to facilitate a direct connection with a vehicle hands-free system.
Notwithstanding the respective improvements in the aforementioned devices and holsters, the industry has not yet turned its attention to addressing future potential obstacles and problems. For example, creative and innovative solutions do not yet exist to address the potential need to add features to devices through an add-on accessory module, to alter or customize device features at will, and to otherwise expand the functional capabilities of portable devices as needed or desired. Thus, what may be needed both presently and in the future is a creative and innovative solution that allows a user to add, alter, expand and otherwise customize the features of their device(s) as needed or desired.